Tally ho

[offcntr]

What's more embarrassing than finding old pots? More embarrassing than finding old booth photos ?

Finding old sales tallies from 1995.

We started Off Center Ceramics in 1993, selling at the Saturday Market in a booth we shared with fellow potter Kathy Lee. By '95, she'd quit Market and we'd gotten a reserved booth on the east edge of the Market. On the first day of the new season, Saturday, April 1st (no foolin! says the tally), we made $40 during the day, another $35 while we were taking down after 5 pm. The following Saturday, April 8, we made $20.

We skipped the following weekend, because it was Easter, Passover, and crummy weather, but on April 22, we made $30. April 29, the tally says No Sales. Rain. To add insult to injury, the $7 booth fee and $15 reserve fee were due at the end of the day.

May starts out better: $72 May 6, $115.50 on May 13, Mother's Day. But the following two weekends, we sell $8 each. These are gross sales, by the way. Booth fee was $7 per day plus 10%, so my net on those days was 20¢. I'm amazed I'm still doing this.

The two weekends we did in June brought in $77 and $98, respectively. The first three weekends of July, $50, $60 and $40. July 22 was a brilliant day, $140, but the following week we were back to $25.

The record ends on Saturday, August 5, with sales of $156, the best day of the summer. Don't know how the rest of the year went; I remember Septembers being crushingly bad, between poor sales and no teaching money from the Craft Center. Yet somehow we managed.

Between the time period and my skill level, I guess the prices were fair: animal banks were $20-25 (they're $40 now), dinner and dessert plates were $15 and $10 respectively ($28 and $23). Candlesticks and soap dishes were $5 each, pie plates $20 (now $33). And colanders and batter bowls were both $25 ($40 and $39 now).

But the truly mind-boggling thing: we only had--and needed--$25 in change in the pouch.